Creativity Over Coffee: Teresa Driscoll

Creativity Over Coffee: Teresa Driscoll. What does it take to be a best selling author? Read on to find out.

Happy Monday, friends! I hope you all had a super weekend. I’m very excited to bring you another edition of Creativity Over Coffee. Today’s interview is quite special because I’m sitting down and chatting with our cousin, and famous author, Teresa Driscoll. Teresa came to our wedding and was previously was a BBC News Presenter, and is now an author with more than half a million books sold! I think you guys will all be inspired by her story. I’ve always wanted to write books and so I asked her many questions about her process and also about life. I also wanted to share that her two thrillers are AMAZING. I couldn’t put The Friend down. I’m not a night person but I was staying up until 3am reading!!!

Grab your coffee (or tea) and join us for some Creativity over Coffee.

Hi Teresa, thank you so much for joining me here on the blog for Creativity Over Coffee! You have had such an amazing career – a journalist, a TV presenter and now a #1 best selling author. Can you give my readers a bit about your background and fill in the gaps of your story. Is it true you wanted to be a writer when you were 10?

Teresa: Yes indeed! Even in primary school I was starting epic novels in exercise books. I loved to read so I longed to write my own stories. The idea of having my name on the spine of a book was this big dream even back then. But I tended to be impatient so would often move on to a new exercise book and a new story without finishing the previous one! Trust me – this is still a problem for grown- up authors. If you are creative – in any field – it is inevitable that you will have lots of ideas popping up all the time. I think it is important to learn the discipline of seeing a project all the way through. You can jot down all the ideas to use later on. But you learn that there is work – proper hard graft to be done too in any creative field.

Before we get too far along, of course, I have to ask about your days as a presenter at the BBC! I read that this was a plan b for you, can you tell us more?

Teresa: My love of books and writing continued right throughout my schooling. By the sixth form, I rather fancied the cliché of writing in some bohemian lifestyle but thankfully a career’s adviser suggested I harnessed my writing gene more sensibly…and practically. She steered me towards journalism and it was a terrific call. Given that writing was the first love, I trained as a newspaper reporter and worked for local papers and freelanced a bit for the nationals. I absolutely loved it! But I wanted to work in London as a journalist full time and newspaper jobs in the city were really tough to get. The chance then came up to work as a researcher for Thames TV in London. So I sort of ended up in broadcasting by accident, rather than ambition or design. Over time I became a television reporter and then a main anchor and I did love telly. It felt an absolute privilege to be a BBC news presenter. But I still always described myself as a writer, first and foremost even during those TV days.

When do you feel most creative or happy?

Teresa: If you mean time of day, I work best in the morning creatively. But in terms of being happy creatively, I just love it when I am totally immersed in writing. The whole world seems to disappear and I am just in my office listening to my characters whisper in my ear.

I just finished your book I am Watching You. LOVED it so much. Can you tell us more about your writing process. Did you find it challenging writing suspense. This book went to #1 in the UK, US and Australia. Did this surprise you?

Teresa: Thank you so much – I’m thrilled you liked I am Watching You. As a novelist, all you can do is write the best book you feel capable of writing and that’s what I did with this novel. I wanted to try a different structure – shining a light on a girl’s disappearance from the different viewpoints of various people affected. But did I know it would be such an international success? No I didn’t! I’d already published two women’s fiction titles and they had been beautifully reviewed but neither were bestsellers to begin with. So I had learned to manage my expectations. There are a lot of things an author can’t control with a book launch – the cover, the title and the mood of the readers. So you just cross everything. I was genuinely blown away when I Am Watching You rocketed up the charts. It was wonderful…but also surreal. Since then it’s sold nearly half a million copies which feels almost bonkers.

When reading the book I really felt like it could be film or TV series. Are there any plans for it to be turned into one.

Teresa: We have sold the Hindi language rights to a leading Bollywood TV studio so they are making plans for a film as I write. I’ve also had interest in the English language rights but no deal has been signed…as yet.

Is there a genre in writing that you prefer?

Teresa: So far I’ve published two women’s fiction titles and I’m currently writing my fourth psychological thriller. I love writing both genres. The two genres have different expectations of course, but I have always loved character-led fiction so in both genres, I start with the theme and then the characters.

Who or what inspires you?

Teresa: The quality I admire most in life is kindness. I also believe in determination. It took me more than ten years to get my first book deal so I hope I have set a good example to my two sons that you have to persevere in life. But that you should always try to be kind first and foremost.

As a journalist, I sadly saw a lot of bad things happening to good people and I came to admire the courage and determination of people to get past adversity. The power of the human spirit. So I also admire that greatly and it definitely feeds into my writing.

I always have a glamorous notion of a writer working away with pots of tea and crumpets beside them as they write. Is this what it’s like? What is your writing process?

Teresa: All authors learn that you have to watch for writer’s bottom, ha, so I have to avoid those crumpets sadly! No seriously – I have an office set up at home in our spare bedroom and I shut myself away there with good coffee. I like to work in silence – no music. I just go into my own world and spend the time with my characters. It sounds bonkers but they seem utterly real to me as I write so it feels as if they tell me what is going to happen. I know deep down that it all comes from me….but it honestly doesn’t feel that way.

The other thing, of course, is that it is work, even if you love writing. It’s so much nicer than having to go into an office at a set time and have someone shape your day. But writing a novel is a huge enterprise. Every time I start a new one, it feels a bit like standing at the bottom of a mountain, looking up and thinking – oh my goodness? Can I do this again? So you need to dig deep and find the discipline to work hard. People are often quite shocked when I tell them the long hours I work, especially when editing.

Do you draw on England and family for inspiration?

Teresa: I draw on everything for inspiration. Every person I have met. Every place I have visited. All of life’s experiences teach you something which helps to layer your writing. I never use real people, of course, in my fiction, but I use everything I have learned about human nature to try to make my characters as convincing as I can.

Can you tell us more about the new book – The Friend?

Teresa: The Friend is deliberately very different from I Am Watching You. It is a book which asks if you can trust your instincts when you first meet someone. I wanted to shine a light on trust and deception and how dangerous and difficult it can be when your instincts are at odds with other people’s.

What advice would you give to someone who is interested becoming more creative or following in your footsteps as a journalist, presenter or writer?

Teresa: First of all, believe in yourself and embrace the passion. Next …keep going. Write every day if you can – the writer muscle is like any other; it benefits from exercise.
And never see rejection as a dead end. It’s just a road block telling you to find a different route.

It really feels like you never gave up hope on your dream of writing. Can you talk a little bit more about that?

Teresa: I won’t lie – there were low moments and there were tears at times over rejection in the early days when I was trying to get a book deal. But editors and agents were kind with their encouragement and so I simply thought – OK; get better at this, Teresa.

Growing up I was a huge follower of INSIDE THE ACTORS STUDIO. At the end of the program, they would ask the interviewee these questions:

What is your favorite word? Kindness.

What is your least favorite word? Prejudice.

What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally? A blank page…and a new character whispering in my ear.

What turns you off? Stress. I tend to be a worrier by nature so I have to fight stress!

What is your favorite curse word? Now that would be telling!

What sound or noise do you love? The sound of running water.

What sound or noise do you hate? Loud and angry traffic.

What profession other than your own would you like to attempt? Honestly don’t know! (Good job the writing worked out)

What profession would you not like to do? Anything which involved exactly the same routine every day.

If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates? ‘They’re all here waiting for you… ‘

A huge thank you to Teresa for joining me today. I hope you’re just as inspired by her story as I am. You can see a full listing of her books here. Be sure to follow her on social media and keep up with her blog:

Teresa’s Blog * Instagram * Facebook * Twitter

If you’d like more Creativity Over Coffee you can read the full series here

* Photos courtesy of Teresa Driscoll

** This post contains a few affiliate links for Teresa’s books.